Étienne Provost (December 21 1785 – 3 July 1850) was a Canadian fur trader whose trapping and trading activities in the American southwest preceded Mexican independence. He was also known as Proveau and Provot. Leading a company headquartered in Taos, in what is today New Mexico, he was active in the Green River drainage and the central portion of modern

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. He was one of the first people of European descent to see the

Great Salt Lake The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, partic ...

, purportedly reaching its shores around 1824–25. However,

Jim Bridger James Felix Bridger (March 17, 1804 – July 17, 1881) was an American mountain man, Animal trapping, trapper, Army scout, and wilderness guide who explored and trapped in the Western United States in the first half of the 19th century. He was ...

also reached the lake at about the same time, in late 1824, and maps from the 1600s may show the Great Salt Lake, possibly indicating European explorers reached the area over a century before Provost or Bridger.

Early life

Provost was born December 21, 1785, in

Chambly, Quebec Chambly () is an Greater Montreal, off-island suburb of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is located in the Montérégie region, inland from the South Shore (Montreal), South Shore of the Saint Lawrence River. It was formed from the m ...

, son of Albert Provost and Marie Anne Menard. He was baptized on December 21, 1785, at Saint-Joseph-de-Chambly Church, Chambly County, Quebec, but little is known about his early life. He made his home in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

for 10 years marveling at the

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in Colorado, specifically ...

as late 1814 with Joseph Philibert. He left there with

Auguste Chouteau René-Auguste Chouteau Jr. (; September 7, 1749, or September 26, 1750 – February 24, 1829Beckwith, 8.), also known as Auguste Chouteau, was one of the founders of St. Louis, Missouri, a successful fur trader and a politician. He and his partne ...

and Jules deMun. He was imprisoned at

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , literal translation, lit. "Holy Faith") is the capital city, capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Santa Fe County. With over 89,000 residents, Santa Fe is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, fourt ...

twice.

Santa Fe trade

About 1822, he returned to

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

as one of the early traders. He formed a

partnership A partnership is an agreement where parties agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments or combinations. Organizations ...

with a certain Leclerc to trap in the Uinta Basin. His

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

was attacked by

Snake Indians Snake Indians is a collective name given to the Northern Paiute, Bannock, and Shoshone Native American tribes. The term was used as early as 1739 by French trader and explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de la Verendrye when he descr ...

in October 1824 at the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan (, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn''; , ''Nəhar hayYardēn''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Sharieat'' (), is a endorheic river in the Levant that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and drains to the Dead ...

near its mouth at the

. Eight men were lost, but Provost survived and established trading posts on the banks of both

Utah Lake Utah Lake is a shallow freshwater lake in the center of Utah County, Utah, United States. It lies in Utah Valley, surrounded by the Provo- Orem metropolitan area. The lake's only river outlet, the Jordan River, is a tributary of the Great Sa ...

and the Great Salt Lake. The Jordan River was historically named Proveau's Fork. Provost's company of trappers preceded the men of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in the central Rocky Mountains. In May 1825, he met

Peter Skene Ogden Peter Skene Ogden (alternately Skeene, Skein, or Skeen; baptised 12 February 1790 – 27 September 1854) was a British-Canadian fur trader and an early explorer of what is now British Columbia and the Western United States. During his many exped ...

of the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

in Weber Canyon. After returning to St. Louis in 1826, he became an employee of

John Jacob Astor John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor; July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848) was a German-born American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor. Astor made his fortune mainly in a fur trade monopoly, by exporting History of opiu ...

American Fur Company The American Fur Company (AFC) was a prominent American company that sold furs, skins, and buffalo robes. It was founded in 1808 by John Jacob Astor, a German Americans, German immigrant to the United States. During its heyday in the early 19th c ...

. He continued his trapping ventures, as well as leading AFC men on ventures on the upper

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

. He married in 1829 but continued escorting AFC caravans to the annual rendezvous until 1838. From 1839 until he died in 1850, he continued to recruit and escort the employees of the fur company and various private expeditions, including John Audubon's natural history expedition of 1843.

Legacy

Provost's activities and explorations were well known among traders and settlers in the American Southwest. The Provo River and Provo Canyon in central Utah are named for the fur trader, as is the adjacent city of Provo. St. Louis, Missouri was home to Provost for many years before his death on July 3, 1850. His funeral services and burial occurred at the Old Cathedral in St. Louis. Provost is memorialized on the This Is the Place Monument in Salt Lake City.

References

* Hafen, LeRoy R. ''Étienne Provost'', "Fur Trappers and Traders of the Far Southwest".

Utah State University Press The University Press of Colorado is a nonprofit publisher that was established in 1965. It is currently a member of the Association of University Presses and has been since 1982. Initially associated with Colorado public universities, the Univ ...

, Logan, Utah, 1968. * Morgan, Dale L., "The West of William H. Ashley" (1964), * Morgan, Dale L., and Eleanor Harris, editors, "The Rocky Mountain Journals of William Marshall Anderson" (1967) * Tykal, Jack B., "Etienne Provost: Man of the Mountains" (1989) * Weber, David J., "The Taos Trappers: The Fur Trade in the Far Southwest", 1540-1846 (1971) *

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Provost, Etienne 1785 births 1850 deaths Canadian fur traders Emigrants from pre-Confederation Quebec to the United States American people of French-Canadian descent